Van der Weyden, Rubens and Van Dyck: Flemish masters on view in The Hague

Better a good neighbour than a distant friend, so the saying goes. During the autumn of 2017, the Mauritshuis tells the story of Flemish portraiture using a selection of the best Flemish portraits from the Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Antwerp. In the Southern Netherlands (now Belgium), the art of portrait painting came into full bloom during the period from 1400 to 1700. During these three centuries, noblemen and wealthy citizens had themselves immortalised by the best Flemish artists of their time. These portraits remain very impressive due to the outstanding way in which the sitters’ facial features and the character were memorialised in paint. The exhibition includes major works by Rogier van der Weyden, Hans Memling, Pieter Pourbus, Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck. Remarkably, almost all the sitters can be identified. This is why the exhibition will not only highlight what makes Flemish portraits so special, b